Aug. 18, 2010
A group of volunteers from Trinity Wesleyan Church load a student’s belongings onto a utility trailer during move-in day Aug. 13 at Southern Wesleyan University in Central.
Trinity Wesleyan volunteers lighten load for new university students, families
For new Southern Wesleyan University students and their families, the initial move to campus brings excitement combined with a bit of nervous anticipation.
A part of that anxiety is figuring out where to park and how to move a mountain of items into a dorm room, after hours of driving from home.
For the past five years, a group of volunteers from Trinity Wesleyan Church in Central, S.C., have been there to alleviate those fears, greeting students and their families with welcoming, helping hands on hot August days. With lawn tractors, golf carts and utility trailers, the volunteers shuttled students’ belongings from a loading zone to Stuart Bennett Residence Hall on Southern Wesleyan’s campus in Central. The move-in date for freshmen was Aug. 13.
“We are so grateful for the men and women from Trinity Wesleyan Church for the wonderful way they give a hand to our incoming students,” said Dr. David Spittal, president of Southern Wesleyan University. “Our parents are thrilled when these helpers meet them at their cars, load, transport them to the dorms and unload. Often a dreaded process takes only one trip because of the help provided by these caring people.”
Joe Hayes, who organized Trinity Wesleyan’s effort initially, said that the first year was the hardest, when they started with half a dozen volunteers. He commented that things have gone more smoothly each year as they refine the logistics of moving everything into the dorm rooms.
“What we get out of it is just the satisfaction of helping,” Hayes said.
Rev. Don Milstead, pastor of Trinity Wesleyan Church, is among the group of a dozen volunteers who devote a full day to helping students and their family members. The volunteers range from teenagers to a man and woman in their 70s. In addition to providing manpower, they bring many cases of cold, bottled water to provide welcome relief from the summer heat.
“This year is the first time we’ve had three trailers – that really moved things along,” Milstead said. “One beneficial thing is that we had more students than ever to help us, so when we would pull up to the dorm, they emptied it in one whack – that made things go smoothly.”
This year, nearly 60 Southern Wesleyan students assisted the Trinity Wesleyan volunteers, including members of Sigma Delta and the men’s and women’s soccer teams.
According to Milstead, things have not always gone so smoothly. During one year, the elevator was broken at Stuart Bennett, requiring them to carry everything up many flights of stairs.
Refrigerators, microwaves and televisions continue to be the larger items the volunteers move. Milstead commented that the televisions are easier to move now, since most students bring newer, lighter flat-screen models instead of the older, bulky models with large picture tubes. Also, larger desktop computers have given way to laptops. He added that female students tend to bring more clothes, while male students have more gadgets, such as gaming systems.
“Probably the most common comment that I have heard from parents is ‘we were dreading how hard it was going to be to move all this stuff from the parking lot to the dormitory up to the room and you all have just lightened a heavy load and taken away something we were really dreading,’” Milstead said.
Southern Wesleyan University